


The Wizard's Prologue and Tale

by MrProphet



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-22 23:28:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10707384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	The Wizard's Prologue and Tale

“Where are we going?” James asked for the fifteenth time.

“Somewhere quiet,” Harry told his eldest son. “Please, if you never do anything your father asks you again, keep that place quiet.”

“I know,” Albus said softly.

“No you don’t!” Lily insisted. “You’ve just always got to  _say_  you do ‘cause you want us to think you’re smarter than us.”

“I don’t need you to think I’m smarter than you, I  _know_  I am,” Albus assured her.

Lily stuck her tongue out at her brother and all three children started shouting.

Ginny turned and called over her shoulder: “If the three of you don’t pipe down this instant, I’m going to turn this car around and take us straight back home!”

Harry looked at his wife in some surprise. “Are you feeling alright?” he asked.

“Wasn’t that right? When you suggested this ‘driving holiday’ I did some research. Apparently the children are supposed to argue and I tell them I’ll turn the car around. Well, really you should do that, but since this car doesn’t trust you behind the wheel…”

“It’s that Ford Anglia,” Harry told her. “It’s done nothing but spread lies about Ron and me since…”

“Since it saved your lives?”

“Well, yes.”

“Right, well don’t complain then.”

“Why are we driving anyway?” James complained. “Why can’t we go by broomstick? Even Lily knows how to fly now.” Newly appointed as Captain of Griffindor’s Quidditch team, James always wanted to fly everywhere and had to be sternly warned against coming down to breakfast by broomstick.

“We’re driving because the place we’re going to can’t be reached by broomstick, nor by apparition, portkey, floo powder or any other magical means; you have to go on foot or on wheels.”

“And no one can go there unless they ask you,” Albus added gravely, “because you’re the Secret-Keeper for the location.”

James frowned at him. “How do you know that?” he demanded.

“Because I know where we’re going.”

“What’s a Secret-Keeper?” Lily asked.

“Someone who keeps a secret, mystically undertaking the entire burden of preserving confidentiality through the use of the Fidelius charm so that no-one else can discover, or even reveal the secret,” James replied.

“Says the boy who’s cramming for his OWLs,” Albus laughed. “It’s like sitting next to a text book with bad breath.”

“Don’t tease your brother,” Ginny warned.

“But it’s so  _easy_.”

“Yes, but he’s bigger than you are and we can’t watch you all the time. Harry, can’t you do something about your children?”

“Funny, I thought they were  _our_  children.”

“Not when I’m driving, and for the record I’m putting a moratorium on future driving holidays. If we can’t fly, we walk.”

“Yes dear,” Harry agreed meekly; even the Chief Auror had to accept that there were arguments that could not be won and most of them were with his wife. He turned in his seat to face his children. “Alright,” he said. “If you keep quiet, I’ll tell you a story.”

The three children immediately sat up straight in their seats; their mother, a storyteller by trade, usually took that duty at home as well, but their father’s stories were well worth waiting for.

“But…” Lily began, before her brothers shushed her.

“What is it, sweetheart?” Harry asked.

“I  _still_  don’t know what a Secret-Keeper is.”

Harry smiled encouragingly. “Then I’ll tell you a story about a secret keeper,” he declared.

*

‘A long time ago, in the days when wizards and witches and Muggles were much closer than they are now, there was a wizard named Alaric Black; one of your great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfathers. 

‘He was one of the most powerful wizards of his age, and a good man, but he was a good man in a bad time, because just as he reached the height of his powers, a group of dark wizards calling themselves the Cabal decided that the Muggles were growing too powerful.

‘It was about this time that the Muggles were beginning to develop a science that was powerful enough to pose a threat to the wizarding world. The Cabal planned to create a union of dark wizards from all nations of the world and seize absolute power over both the magical and mundane worlds.

‘Alaric Black was one of the wizards who opposed the Cabal. He learned of what they were doing, but his informant was captured and so he knew the Cabal would know that he had found them out. He needed time to gather his own allies against the Cabal, and so he decided to pretend to be dead.

‘He knew that if he simply faked his death, any one of a dozen members of the Cabal would be able to scry him out. To protect himself, he entrusted the secret of his survival to the one person he trusted more than any other. His wife.

‘Cecilia Black was a Muggle, but Alaric knew that she was brave, noble and faithful. He told her his plans and, with her agreement, cast a Fidelius charm to make her his Secret-Keeper, so that as long as she held her tongue, no magic that the Cabal could muster would be able to detect that he was still alive. And then he disappeared, leaving only his wand and a bloodstained cloak to be found by the authorities and returned to the woman whom all presumed to be his widow.

‘All save one.

‘Alaric’s sister, Nyxis, was a member of the Cabal and she knew her brother too well to believe he had been killed by trolls. When her magic failed to reveal his whereabouts, she knew what he must have done and set about finding a way to wheedle the information out of Cecilia.

‘She could not take her sister-in-law captive and torture her, not without giving the game away too soon, and so she plotted and schemed and found another way.

‘She waited patiently for a year, while her allies laid their plans, and then went to Alaric’s estate to see Cecilia.

‘”Sister, dearest,” she crooned sweetly. “How awful it must be for you to have lost poor Alaric.”

‘”Yes, sister dearest,” Cecilia replied. “I weep for him each day.”

‘“Of course,” Nyxis agreed. “But more than that, it must be terrible to be so lonely and vulnerable. After all, you can not engage in business without someone to represent you; you are entirely at someone else’s mercy.”

‘”Have no fear for me,” Cecilia assured her sister-in-law. “My brother is my man of business and he has nothing but my best interests at heart.”

‘But despite her confidence in him, Cecilia’s brother proved less than reliable. He made many bad decisions and lost her a great deal of money, until her family began to worry that she would not be able to support herself.

‘”Oh, my dear sister, how distressing for you,” Nyxis said. “What will you do?”

‘”My father wants me to marry again,” Cecilia replied.

‘Nyxis’ black heart glowed with pride. His was what she had planned all along and this was why she had used the Imperius curse to control Cecilia’s brother and ruin her fortunes. She knew that it was only a matter of time before Cecilia would be forced to marry or face ruin and then she would have to either confess that her husband still lived, because she could not marry again while he survived.

‘Sure enough, Cecilia’s father soon decided that she would have to marry again, and with her fortune lost she could not easily refuse him, but she fought desperately for time.

‘”I will marry again,” she agreed. “But I will not be married a pauper, father. I must have the finest wedding dress imaginable prepared for me, before I will even think of choosing a groom.”

‘And so her father sent for a silk-mistress of the Spider People, who spent months weaving a dress of such sublime and simple lines that no-one who saw it could doubt that it had cost a fortune. And then he went to Cecilia with the dress and he ordered her to choose a new husband.

‘”Very well,” she agreed, “but it can not be just anyone. It must be a wizard, and he must fit into my old husband’s boots and robes.”

‘And she had ten pairs of her husband’s boots brought down and ten of his best robes taken from the closets and set them on hangers in the great hall and declared that she would not consider taking any man for her husband who could not levitate these garments to him and fit into them precisely.

‘”And I would be false to myself if I were to marry the first wizard to do so,” she added. “Thus, I shall not think of making a choice until I have ten to choose from.”

‘Hundreds of men came to her hall over the next six months, because Cecilia was still a very beautiful woman. Many were not wizards and most were the wrong size and they were sent away with kind words and regrets, but some met both conditions and soon there were five suitors waiting for Cecilia to make her choice. The other five came more slowly, but come they did, until at last there was just one robe left to be filled.

‘Nyxis went to her half-brother, Sebastius Black. Sebastius looked very much like his half-brother Alaric, except for a nasty sneer which never left his face and a cold gleam in his eyes. “Sebastius,” Nyxis said, “you must be the tenth and we must see to it that you are chosen. Any other might grant a widow time to think, and we must press her.”

‘And so Sebastius took the tenth robe and Nyxis poured out her recommendations of him into Cecilia’s ear, but still Cecilia stalled for time.

‘”The man I marry must be skilled and swift,” she said. “Let the ten of you race around the estate on broomsticks, in and out of the trees in the copse and under the bridges and tunnels of the moat. The first five will come back into the hall for me to choose from.”

‘Nyxis was worried for a time, for Sebastius had no great skill on a broomstick, but she was not worried. She gathered several members of the Cabal to attend as Sebastius’ supporters, and with deadly accuracy they spun charms and curses and traps to halt, befuddle and thwart his rivals, so that in the end only four wizards returned to the hall.

‘”Very well,” Cecilia said. “One of you will be my husband. To prove yourselves worthy, you must be the first to take his wand and cast a forgetting spell on me, for I can never marry again while I remember my first husband.”

‘Nyxis cursed silently to herself, because she knew that Cecilia had beaten her. Once the forgetting charm was cast, Cecilia could never reveal her husband’s secret.

‘”We must act now,” she decided. “I will gather our supporters in the hall and when the time comes, we will stun your rivals so that you can take the wand and dispose of them. Then we shall wrest the secret from her by torture and to hell with the consequences.

‘The next day, the suitors gathered in the hall. Nyxis brought all those members of the Cabal who could be summoned to surround the suitors as they stood along the edge of a round table, with Alaric Black’s wand in the centre.

‘As Cecilia dropped a handkerchief as a signal for her suitors, Nyxis and the other members of the Cabal drew their wands and sent a flurry of stunning bolts at the other three suitors. To their amazement, however, two of the suitors lifted their wands and called out: “Protego!” and every attack was blocked by a combined shield charm surrounding all four suitors.

‘In the circle, Sebastius reached out his hand. “Accio wand!” he called, but one of his rivals cast his own summoning. For a moment, the wand trembled on the table, before flying to the hand of Sebastius’ rival.

‘”The victor immediately pointed his wand at Cecilia, but instead of a forgetting charm, he called: ”Accio Cecilia!” and the woman flew gently through the air, through the shield and into the arms of her husband, for who else but the wand’s true master could have won such a challenge?

‘”Nyxis! Sebastius! Lay down your wands!” Alaric commanded.

‘”Never!” Nyxis replied.

‘Sebastius tried to kill his half-brother there and then, but another of his rivals disarmed him. The Cabal bent all their power to breaching the shield charm, but before they could make so much as a dent in it, the doors of the hall burst open, the fire in the fireplace blazed green and dozens of witches and wizards flooded in to surround the Cabal.

‘The dark wizards fought fiercely, but within minutes they were all disarmed, stupefied… or dead. In that one strike, the Cabal was crippled, their leaders seized and their plans overthrown. Alaric returned to his wife’s side and the alliance of wizards and witches that he had gathered guided the wizarding world onto its new path, away from the Muggle world.

‘That alliance took the name ‘Order of the Phoenix’. It was not the first, nor the last to do so. And the two wizards who had stood by Alaric in the circle? Their names were Adolphus Dumbledore and Sir Geoffrey de Ottery.’

*

“Our Weasely ancestor,” James crowed. “Is that really true?”

“As near as I can make out. Ask your Aunt Hermione sometime; she’s the one with a bee in her bonnet about legal history and the founding of wizard society.” Harry turned and settled back into his seat. “Now, I think we’re nearly there.”

“How can you tell?” Lily asked.

“Because the car just stopped helping with the driving and your mother forgot to indicate on the last three corners,” Harry replied.

“Beast,” Ginny accused fondly.

“We’ve entered the Quietus.”

James was mightily impressed. “A Quietus?” He breathed. “There are only three of them in the whole of Britain!”

“What’s a Quietus?” Lily asked.

“A place without magic,” Albus told her. “Somewhere you can’t reach with magic, or see with magic, or do magic in. There’s one at Stonehenge, one around the Tower of London and one… here. No-one knows where the third one is, because Dad hid it.”

“That’s right,” Harry agreed. “I hid it to protect the remains of the most misunderstood hero of the war. Of our war, anyway. But now you’re all at Hogwarts and growing up so fast, we thought it was time we brought you here, to visit the grave of Severus Snape.”


End file.
